Speeches, May 10,
1933

Goebbels'
Speech
As reported in the Völkischer Beobachter, the official Nazi Party
newspaper, May 12, 1933. Despite the claims here, the burnings were
not a spontaneous act on the part of the "German Students' Association,"
(the name taken by the Nazi student group of the University of Berlin)
but a carefully planned and orchestrated event carried out by the Association
and Nazi private police.

The Feuersprüche
Declarations chanted by the members of the Berlin "German Student
Association," as they marched around the Opernplatz in Berlin.

The German Students'
Association of the Berlin universities assembled yesterday at
the Hegelplatz and then, taking along several truckloads of 25,000
books and writings undermining the spirit of the German people,
marched to the Opernplatz where they, in a symbolic action, threw
these Un-German writings into the flames of a pyre.

Thousands
upon thousands of onlookers wanted to witness this spectacle. Long
before the beginning of the event, the Opernplatz was ringed by
a large crowd. Upon the arrival of the students marching in formation,
they were greeted by the crowd with a thunder of "heil"
and cheers.

Then
Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels spoke: "The era of extreme Jewish
intellectualism has come to an end and the German revolution has
again opened the way for the true essence of being German. This
revolution was not started at the top, it burst forth from the bottom,
upwards. It is, therefore, in the very best sense of the word, the
expression of the will of the Volk. There stands the worker
next to the bourgeois, student next to soldier and young worker,
here stand the intellectuals next to the proletariat.

"During
the past fourteen years while you, students, had to suffer in silent
shame the humiliations of the November Republic [i.e.: the Weimar
Republic, transl. note], your libraries were inundated with the
trash and filth of Jewish "asphalt" literati.

"The
movement which in the past attacked the state has now penetrated
the state, indeed even more so, it has become the state. And with
that the German spirit has achieved quite different possibilities
of effectiveness. Revolutionary elán and revolutionary energy
which were experienced by German youth during the past years have
now become the tempo and elán of the whole nation.

"Therefore,
you are doing the right thing as you, at this midnight hour, surrender
to the flames the evil spirit of the past. There the intellectual
basis of the November Republic is crushed to the ground. But from
the rubble will arise victoriously the Phoenix of a new spirit,
a spirit that we carry forth, that we nourish and to which we give
decisive weight.

"I
believe that never before was a group of youthful students as justified
as you are to be proud of your life, proud of your tasks, and proud
of your duty. Never before had young men the justification to exclaim
with Ulrich von Hutteng [German author, 1488-1523, transl. note]:
'Oh Century, Oh Sciences, it is a joy to be alive!'

"The
old past lies in flames; the new times will arise from the flame
that burns in our hearts. Wherever we stand together, wherever we
march together, we want to dedicate ourselves to the Reich
and its future.

"As
we did so often, while we were still fighting in the opposition,
now that we hold the power, and with it the responsibility, we join
together in the vow that we previously so often promised to the
nightly sky: 'Illuminated by many flames let it be an oath! The
Reich and the nation and our Führer Adolf Hitler
- Heil.'"

The
Horst-Wessel song [official anthem of the Nazi party, transl. note]
thunderously rings out and the flames are still crackling while
stacks upon stacks of the collected Jewish subversive writings are
thrown into them. With this demonstration, the continuing fight
against the un-German mind has been started. This struggle will
not cease until all Germans are again of the German mind-set.